pushed up over Tisdale's trail, now become
well broken, eager to make a final scoop and his best one. Hours later,
when he should have been back at Scenic Hot Springs, rushing his copy
through to his paper, he still remained on the slope below the west portal
to carry out the brief and forceful instructions of the man who directed
and dominated everybody; who knew in each emergency the one thing to do.
Once Jimmie found himself aiding Banks to wrap a woman's body in a blanket
to be lowered by tackle down the mountainside. She was young, not older
than Geraldine, and the sight of her--rounded cheek, dimpled chin, arm so
beautifully molded--all with the life snuffed out without a moment's
warning--gave him a sensation of being smothered. He was seized with a
compelling desire to get away, and to conquer his panic, he asked the
prospector whether this man was not the superintendent of the mountain
division.

The mining man replied: "No, that's the railroad boss over there with the
gang handling the derrick; this is Tisdale, Hollis Tisdale of Alaska and
Washington, D.C. You ought to have heard of him in your line of business
if you never happened to see him before."

Then Jimmie, turning to look more directly at the stranger, hastily
dropped his face. "You are right," he said softly, "I've known him by
sight some time."

Afterwards, while they were having coffee with the station master, Daniels
asked Banks how he and Tisdale happened to be at Cascade Tunnel. "I was
putting in a little time at the Springs," Banks responded, "but Hollis was
a passenger on the stalled train. He took a notion to hike down to the
hotel just ahead of the slide."

"You mean that man who has taken charge out there," exclaimed the
operator. "I had a talk with him before he started; he was rigging up some
snowshoes. He said he was from Alaska, and I put him down for one of those
bonanza kings."

"He is," said Banks in his high key. "What he don't know about minerals
ain't worth knowing, and he owns one of the finest layouts in the north,
Dave Weatherbee's bore."

"The Aurora mine," confirmed Daniels. "And I presume there isn't a man
better known, or as well liked, in Alaska."

Banks nodded. "Dave and him was a team. The best known and the best liked
in the whole country. And likely there's men on the top seats in
Washington, D.C., would be glad of a chance to shake hands with Hollis
Tisdale."

"I knew he was somewhere near the top," comment